Where Was I?

Ah, yes, Newcastle! Golly, that was a while ago. Since then I have - yawn - been having RSI issues again, and so limited my computer use.

Anyway, this was the first time I have been to Newcastle. The conference was held at the university, and we were staying in halls. I know that Newcastle doesn't have a big town centre, but still, when we walked out of the halls towards the centre I wasn't expecting this:



Yes. Those are cows. Why someone thought it would be a good idea to have cows by a student hall, I don't know. I am now collecting photos of livestock framed by tower blocks, since I already have one of some sheep outside the train station at the Hoek van Holland.

The conference was interesting, and they filled our days so there wasn't much time to look around. We had a boat trip down the Tyne. It was very nice, although I didn't see much of the view considering it was a) the evening b) it was April c) it was the Tyne d) it was bloody freezing. Luckily the boat had an indoors ;)

We also had a trip out to Hadrian's Wall, the Housesteads fort. The coach pulled away during hail mixed with sleet. As we neared the wall it changed to a thick snowstorm - the entire landscape was white and you couldn't see a thing. Unfortunately our tour guide did keep telling us that if we looked into the distance we may be able to see x, y or z. The most amazing thing was the trees - the snow was blowing so strongly and horizontally that all the trees had a perfect vertical white stripe down them, and the rest was bark - it was lovely.

And then! Suddenly! It was sunshine and everything was green! Bonkers. The weather held until just after we got back on the coach - when it started raining.

I kept taking photos of the bleakness up on the wall. But basically, once you got one bleak photo, they all tend to look the same.



This is a much better picture of Housesteads, rendered in icing:



The real Housesteads sadly does not have a penguin dressed like a Roman soldier either:



This was the most exciting part of the coach trip (for saddos like me) - the actual real proper genuine tree used in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (you know, when Kevin Costner goes to Nottingham from Dover via Hadrian's Wall):



And yes, it really is that tree, because I watched the film again just to check.

I left a day early as the choice was get a lift with someone for £5 or get a train for £50. Hmmm. Managed to see some more of the sights from the motorway though:



And these! This is a blurry picture taken at speed on the wrong side of the motorway of THE NICEST MOTORWAY LOOS IN THE COUNTRY. Fact.



We stopped here on the way up. When we approached the toilets they really looked like sheds. Given my phobia of things extends to a dislike of going in sheds as things live in sheds, I was actually quite apprehensive of going in. I was tempted to ask if we could drive on to the next services, but that would have been unfair to the driver. However, inside they were palacial! I felt like there was a portal into the loos at the Ritz. I stepped back outside at the same time as someone left the gents - he looked at me and said, "that was the loo of the year." Fact.